Letters to the editor - June 2017

01 Jun 2017

Illegal surveillance

I moved to Docklands two years ago. When I first moved to Victoria it was one of the first places I visited, and with that visit, I fell in love.

My plan was simple. Semi retire in a suburb that I felt safe and secure in. Where I knew my neighbors and have no maintenance. The view from my apartment is visually pleasing and I could not have chosen a better place.

Sounds like a great life, right? Well my bubble of bliss burst last week, when I overheard my building manager talking to an onsite contractor about his use of the surveillance system. They were laughing about how he used it to monitor residents’ movements, especially the pretty looking ones and the ones that complain all the time.

At first I didn’t think much of it, but then as I went about my daily business of going to the local shop for bread, the tram to go into the city, checking my mail, driving my car to the golf range and so forth, I thought, I wonder if I am being monitored.

I started looking on the internet for some rules or a code of conduct, but what I found was even more surprising. There is surveillance law that protects people, and after reading it, I realised what my building manager is doing, is illegal.

I find it even more disturbing that when I brought this to the building manager’s attention, he asked me where I go every Wednesday at lunch time. So it begs the question – is living in Docklands too secure? Does it mean no matter where you live you are being watched by your building staff?

I guess after bringing it up with the building manager, I am now on the trouble maker list and will continue to be watched ... which means I will now be beyond safe as I lock myself in my apartment to protect myself from him.

Offensive and unfair

Myself and lots of my co-workers (we work in Docklands) have all read it and discussed our concerns, we feel it is a quite offensive article and really unfair to this runner.

You have not asked his permission to publish. You have made fun of his “loud breathing” without his consent.

Good on him for running in his community and I don’t think it’s fair to publish an image of him without permission and potentially make him feel uncomfortable to run in his own community because people will now be looking out for him.

Very poor journalism and not a kind way to talk about a person in the community without their consent.

Sorry for the negative feedback, you have done some good articles and hope to read more of those